Art & Design APRIL/MAY : ISSUE 107
Drawn Together A new exhibition of David Hockney’s work makes clear that people are the very heart of his work WORDS: HALEY KADROU
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hen it comes to notable figures within the art world, David Hockney is an artist of the people. In 2011, he was named Britain’s most influential artist. The 1,000 subjects who were surveyed were budding artists and sculptors, demonstrating his lasting influence as well as his appeal to his contemporaries. In 2017, a retrospective of his work at Tate Britain drew its highest ever number of paying visitors. And in 2018, the painting Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) became the most expensive piece of art ever sold at auction by a living artist, fetching $90.3 million (the record was reclaimed by Jeff Koons, the following year, when Rabbit (1986) sold for $91.07 million). But while his depictions of pools, and his place within the cubism and pop art movements in the twentieth century have gained him mass appeal and admiration from critics and amateurs alike, it’s Hockney’s fascination with the human form that truly defines him as an artist. Throughout his six-decade career, portraiture has been the constant as movements, materials and methods (Hockney is often praised for
These pages, clockwise from left: David Hockney Self Portrait with Red Braces, 2003, Watercolour on paper 24 x 18 1/8” © David Hockney. Photo Credit Richard Schmidt; David Hockney Self Portrait, July 1986, Home made print on 2 sheets of paper, Edition of 60, 22 x 8 ½” © David Hockney. Photo Credit: Richard Schmidt; David Hockney Self Portrait, 1954, Collage on newsprint, 16 ½ x 11 ¾” © David Hockney. Photo Credit: Richard Schmidt, Collection: Bradford Museums & Galleries, Bradford, U.K. 24
